1717 – Horace Walpole, English author, art historian, and politician who is now best known for his Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto and for and his 8-volume Letters, which are of significant social and political interest.
1856 – Pratap Narayan Mishra, Indian Hindi essayist who is famous for exhorting all Indians to chant and believe in “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan.”
1896 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, influential American author of Jazz Age novels, essays, screenplays, and short stories who was a member of the Lost Generation of writers and is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
1900 – Alexander Davidovich Meiselman, Russian writer, poet, essayist, translator, and orientalist who specialized in Asian theater studies.
1910 – Cao Yu, Chinese playwright and screenwriter who is considered China’s most important playwright of the 20th century.
1912 – Robert Lewis Taylor, Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, biographer, and journalist.
1934 – John Brunner, Hugo Award-winning British science-fiction author.
1934 – Yasutaka Tsutsui, Japanese novelist, science-fiction author, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.
1940 – Rogelio Lunasco Ordoñez (also known as Ka Roger), award-winning Filipino fiction writer, poet, activist, journalist, and educator.
1941 – Gaby Vallejo Canedo, Bolivian writer, novelist, and children’s author.
1943 – Dina Porat, Argentine-born Israeli writer, historian, and professor.
1945 – Larisa Alexeyevna Rubalskaya, Russian writer, poet, lyricist, and translator,
1950 – John Kessel, American literary critic, playwright, and author of science-fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.
1962 – Kristín Ómarsdóttir, Icelandic author, poet, playwright, and visual artist.
1969 – Zainab Salbi, Iraqi book author, activist for women’s rights, television host, and founder of Women for Women International.
1985 – Eleanor Catton, Man Booker Prize-winning New Zealand novelist and screenwriter.
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